What is the deal with the Facebook privacy posts?

NEW YORK - A false chain message about protecting your privacy has been circulating on Facebook for nearly a decade and keeps going.

The post has wording that the user does not grant Facebook permission to use your pictures, information, messages, and posts.  The message is usually posted with a warning that you need to copy and paste it to your own timeline to protect yourself.

"There's nothing that you're going to write on your Facebook account that's going to have any impact whatsoever on privacy policy on the way Facebook uses your data," Shelly Palmer, professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communication says.

The best thing to do if one of your friends posts it is to ignore it.

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Palmer says that if you have a photo or video you want to protect you can simply click on the three dots in the upper right corner of it and change who can see it.

He says that the privacy post is not harmful and really seems to just be a way to make the person who posts it look silly but he warns there are more dangerous scams to worry about.

Palmer says social engineering is used to send a message or link that the scammers hope you click on that can give them access to your device or account.

He says Facebook will not send "official messages" to users.